Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 155 Rising Dragon

Huang Yucheng, the former grand hall where the prefect used to entertain guests. The ostentatious bronze tripods, incense burners, and other such items that were once displayed there have all been removed.

All the household registration information for the entire state capital was brought out and displayed here.

Wu Juwang and the others were busy coming and going; some were carrying books, while others were taking notes.

Xuan Chong was very self-aware, knowing that the young men he recruited could not all be like Huo Guang or Heshen, able to be flawless in front of a demanding monarch, making no mistakes in anything, big or small.

Xuan Chong couldn't help but recall a saying his teacher from his previous life often said: "Ability is one aspect, but attitude is another."

It could even be said that in a team-based division of labor system, attitude is more important than ability.

Xuan Chong is now absolutely certain that even the most outstanding child prodigy cannot compare to a well-coordinated team. Moreover, this group of adopted sons are definitely not stupid, because if they weren't clever, they would have been dealt with long ago—the pickpocketing business doesn't support useless people.

Take Wu Juwang for example. He was very shrewd and capable. He knew the number of all the books and scrolls he had handled. When organizing them, he could quickly point out which scroll was missing and know exactly where it was placed.

The hall now displays a large map made up of several wooden planks. Each governance area on the map is marked with four different colored blocks, and next to the map is a small table for recording and creating regional data tables. And this map is currently covered with grains.

The Wujuwang team placed "grains of rice" representing population and "beans" representing land on different areas of the map. This is similar to bar charts and pie charts in PowerPoint, which can intuitively show the resources that can be mobilized on a piece of land.

Wu Fei instructed Wu Juwang and others: "Governing a prefecture is like this: you must judge the abundance of resources in each region; when different regions interact with each other's resources, the prefecture should intervene in the necessary production exchanges of the local people and actively allocate resources from different places. In promoting the balance of resources in different places, you should collect as many resources as possible."

When Wu Fei adjusts his strategy, he rearranges the rice grains, soybeans, and mung beans in each area of ​​the map to make them more even.

After the distribution was completed, Wu Fei had an extra handful of rice and beans. These "rice and beans" were resources that the state government could mobilize.

The adopted sons quickly grasped the essence of governance: "In the process of allocation, one's hands are never idle, gathering things from all over the place into one's own hands."

Therefore, the adopted son named Wu Zaixing, sitting in the second seat of the third row, seemed to have some insight and muttered some words quietly.

Wu Fei: "Stop muttering here, just say it." When Wu Zaixing tried to deny it, Wu Juwang, the class representative, saw Wu Fei's expression and reprimanded Wu Zaixing for telling the truth.

Wu Zaixing cautiously and loudly said, forcing a smile, "How come these government officials are just like us, all swindlers!" The adopted sons beside him suppressed their laughter, but seeing Wu Fei's expression, they dared not speak like that.

Wu Fei walked up to him and said, “I’m glad you’ve realized this. That’s how the government works, and the big thieves in the government are a thousand times more powerful than you petty thieves. You can at most steal from one person, but the government can ruin a thousand families. However, you can’t hide your understanding of the Dao, which is giving me a headache. (He tapped his forehead with a bamboo slip) As petty thieves, you all know the rules of the trade: you can’t be caught in the act. Now that you’re in the government, every word and action you take is “in the act of committing a crime.” How can you call yourself a thief? I’m punishing you to copy today’s summary, and you can’t make a single mistake.”

Everyone in the room continued working, with students using measuring tools to place rice and beans on a wooden board.

In the hall, apart from the ticking sound of rice and beans hitting the wooden board and the sound of engraving on bamboo slips, there was only background noise.

Half an hour later, Wu Ju, holding the official seal of the prefectural government, stamped the silk scroll with the decrees and looked up suddenly.

He found it somewhat surreal. When he first met Wu Fei, being a commoner, he had never imagined he could enter the offices of the prefectural officials. Even when he was a thief, he dared not approach anyone coming out of the prefectural government. He had once imagined that the prefectural government was filled with floating clouds and the gods of mountains and rivers standing in the halls.

Now, Wu Fei had led him here. If it weren't for the official seals lying on the table, with each group member taking turns stamping the silk scrolls, he would have thought he was still picking up grains of rice outside the shop.

If he had known in the past that he would be working for the prefectural magistrate, he would have been very excited, but now he finds himself feeling nothing.

…because Wu Fei, who brought him into the industry, was busy with calculations devoid of any emotion.

While teaching his adopted sons how to govern the prefecture, Xuan Chong (Wu Fei) also tried to remain calm and understand the series of cold realities of this "ruling position".

The reality is that, in feudal times, if a numerical value were to be set for governance, it would be based on the extent of exploitation and whether the resources were used in the right direction.

Xuan Chong: The support needed for the operation of the Great Yao Dynasty is not the "benevolence, filial piety and righteousness" that Confucian scholars talk about now. All "benevolence, filial piety and righteousness" are just to cover up the essence of extortion and plunder. The hard-earned money of farmers is ultimately transferred to the hands of the big collectors. The big collectors hold up benevolence, filial piety and righteousness and become "the virtuous ones occupy the throne".

The fundamental problem that dynasties have accumulated over thousands of years is that the public resources collected through centralized levies were not used for public services that truly needed them, but instead mysteriously disappeared.

The essential tasks necessary to maintain a dynasty were public works that benefited the general public, such as water conservancy, roads, granaries, and military affairs. However, the taxes levied on the lowest-ranking people by most dynasties far exceeded the costs of these public works.

The public's hard-earned money has been inexplicably used up, and there needs to be an explanation: what exactly did it go to?
"Benevolence and filial piety" created a grand undertaking that seemed to meet everyone's needs. Of course, after the Tang Dynasty, there was also the promotion of Buddhism and the construction of temples.

But if you really look into it closely, can the "benevolence, filial piety and righteousness" that appear in a prefecture really be commensurate with the taxes that are squeezed from the people?
The "benevolence and filial piety" of Da Yao, and the "education" carried out by many powerful clans in the counties, seem to really require a huge amount of the people's hard-earned money to support them.

Wu Fei: Benevolence and filial piety are merely personal moral attributes. They should not be included in the performance evaluation of county and prefecture governance. The only performance evaluation of county and prefecture governance is tax collection and expenditure.

When Wu Fei and his adopted sons, or students, picked up the representative items such as beans, millet, and mung beans one by one on the map.

In March of the first year of the Tianyou calendar, policies began to be implemented one by one. Amidst the beating of gongs and drums, official documents were distributed to various villages.

As the gongs and drums sounded, each household began to look at the documents written on the posted draft paper.

One of the documents declared that if a woman did not marry by the age of fifteen and a man did not marry by the age of seventeen, the government would punish them. The woman would be forced to marry an elderly person who was more than ten years older than her, while the man would be conscripted for forced labor and transferred to the front lines. As a result, large-scale marriages began in Bo, and some men, in order to avoid forced labor, had to buy foreign women from the slave market as wives.

Wu Hengyu's side is currently fighting against the Yan region, sweeping through a large number of villages, including many alien races brought by the Hao Kingdom from other planets.

As for these foreign tribes, the men were naturally enslaved. Except for a very small number of artisans and other skilled groups who could be pardoned and transported to the southern border, the rest might spend their entire lives working in the mines until they died.

As for the women? Wu Fei didn't let Wu Hengyu's troops just waste them like that. The slave camp was there to prevent the front-line troops from "wasting food," so Wu Fei bought these barbarian women back.

But with these foreign women, Wu Fei almost suffered an "investment failure".

For the soldiers on the front lines, the saying "Three years in the army, even a sow will look as beautiful as Diao Chan" meant they weren't picky eaters. But the libertines in the countryside, not wanting to settle down, didn't care at all. Each one relied on having many brothers in their clan and had absolutely no interest in starting a family.

This drove Wu Fei crazy. After investigating, he learned that the basic social unit in various places is now the "household", not the family in the traditional sense of later generations. A "household" will have several children, but only one of these children will get married, start a family, and have children. The rest are bachelors, and when the bachelors get old, they are naturally supported by their children and nephews.

As for household registration, they would be merged into "clans" to seize local land and means of production. There would be more bachelors, and the main force for reproduction in the clan would be the large clan. As for "desire", these men would directly solve it through brothels. Once they had enough money, they would do it once a month or every few months.

The clan-based social structure is similar to that of African tribes. The only difference is that African tribes do not pass down agricultural skills.

Therefore, Wu Fei, who was collecting "rice grains" (representing population) on the map, thought: "You can't do it this way. How can I, as an official, lose money in business?"

A month after the labor service decree was posted, all the barbarian women under Xuan Chong's control were finally sold off.

Six months later, the prodigal sons who had started families no longer had time to fight cocks and walk dogs in the streets. They needed to work to make a living, which to some extent increased the efficiency of building irrigation canals and leveling roads in various villages.

This brings us to another issue: the labor force required for the construction of public facilities.

Wu Fei: These days, without mandatory labor, many projects simply can't be done. Money alone won't cut it. Previously, when Wu Fei paid the laborers who came to perform corvée labor, they all knelt down and shouted that the general was benevolent. This gave Wu Fei a moment of confidence, believing that as long as he introduced the advanced "monthly wage" system, wouldn't these ancient people obediently come and serve him like cattle? The ancients, having never seen a good life, are definitely easier to serve than modern people.

But later Wu Fei broke down. Modern people are better than cattle and horses. They obediently deliver food for money. These ancient people are not so stupid. They won't come and work hard for a little bit of wages.

These vagrants, like the legendary African laborers from his previous life, stopped coming after receiving their monthly wages, which gave Wu Fei a shocking impression of them as "troublemakers."

These unruly villagers have such a romanticized view of being a good man, believing he can "go anywhere in the world as he pleases."

After Wu Fei's incognito visit, he discovered that these unruly people were calculating in this way: "The government will not arrest me for such a small amount of money, and even if they send someone to look for me, my clan will not hand me over for such a small amount of money."

As for the recommendation of officials based on virtue and filial piety—the troublemakers say: I don't expect to become an official, so what do I need that thing for? If I can fleece the government, why wouldn't I?
Wu Fei gained a completely new understanding of the situation in the countryside: in a game, those who care about whether the game can run are all high-level players who have invested a lot of energy or resources; as for those country bumpkins, they are just like free-to-play players, none of them have any interest in participating in maintaining the system.

But while we understand, we must never tolerate such a rebellion by cattle and horses!

Wu Xiaoque: "I'm always the one scraping the ground, how can there be such troublemakers who dare to plunder me?! I'm angry."

…If you can't control the troublemakers, can't you control your clan?

Therefore, in March of the first year of the Tianyou calendar, Wu Fei changed the mechanism within the maintenance association that determined the candidates for the civil service examination through the "election of adult men". Men had to indicate whether they were unmarried or married and bring their wives with them for the confirmation.

Wu Fei: "Isn't it because we can't hire you? You don't care about taking the civil service exam, and you're just taking advantage of people without any weaknesses, right? You rely on the local powerful families to protect you in these small matters because of their reputation in the village, right?"

After Wu Fei signed the responsibility agreement, Wu Juwang raised a question: "The land in Bo County is limited. After this policy is implemented, the number of registered households in various places will increase, but the land will still be in the hands of the powerful clans. Will these households that have lost their land become a source of unrest after several generations?"

Wu Ju entered the "Prefectural Government Office" and gained the attention of some wealthy families.

The Bo-di aristocratic families shared some of their opinions with Wu Juwang, who gradually developed his own political views.

Wu Juwang then asked Wu Fei, "Our need for more soldiers contradicts the need for the people in various regions to recuperate and rebuild their lives. How can we allocate resources between them?"

Wu Fei looked at his proud disciple and smiled, "It seems you have mastered the basics, but let me tell you, when we military strategists are about to accomplish great things, we cannot relinquish the power of allocation and balance to the local prefectures and powerful clans."

You only see the contradiction between our gathering of resources and the fact that we are actually clans but are actually just ordinary people, but you don't see the contradiction between the clans that call themselves ordinary people and the farmers and merchants within them who want a better life.

If the clan is now so comfortable that those "wise men" say it's "a blessing from heaven," then...

Those who farmed, raised horses, reeled silk, chopped firewood, and made charcoal still couldn't afford rice, dared not ride horses, couldn't afford silk clothes, and were reluctant to use charcoal! However, these clans perfectly concealed the "contradiction" between their lower-class lives and their maintenance of grand luxury.

For example, large clans have a population control mechanism in their localities. The main branch is very prosperous, but the clan will not encourage marriage among the other branches, because if the branches have too many children, the clan land will not be allocated to the branches.

In order to control the population, clans would even commit infanticide, especially the killing of female infants. This was because the smaller branches of the clan knew they were not worthy of raising daughters, and only boys who were capable of working like cattle could survive in their families. The larger branches of the clan rarely killed female infants.

Don't be fooled by the fact that these minor branches whose marriages were arranged are all still alive and well. That's because there's a war going on, and the military government needs these minor branches. They have a voice, and the clan elders don't dare to neglect them.

Once the war ends, the smaller clans will be of no use to the General's Mansion. The clan elders will immediately shatter their comfortable lives, reducing their resources to the point where they can only live to forty. And the surplus resources? They won't go to the General's Mansion.

Wu Fei drew his sword, tapped it lightly, and listened to the resounding clang: "We are now collecting resources, disrupting the clan balance. But we are responsible for the balance of the smaller branches (families), allowing them to earn money, have children, and live out their lives! Only in this way will the people's strength be transferred to our hands."

Wu Juwang understood and nodded. The General's Mansion uses a more basic family balance to replace the clan balance, thereby drawing the power of local clans to the war. If one day the General's Mansion can no longer provide "family balance", then it will revert to "clan balance".

…“Marriage” is just one policy; other policies that extract resources are also being adjusted…

Xuan Chong summarized in his history notebook: Under the dynastic governance system in the East, the military strength of a region was often not directly related to whether the prefecture or county was wealthy, but rather to the concentration of resources.

The northern fishing, hunting, and agricultural system, during its several incursions into the Central Plains, all took advantage of the self-stability of the lower levels of the Central Plains, preventing them from mobilizing resources. After disrupting the "self-stability" of the Central Plains, they gathered more manpower and resources and continued south, eventually conquering the Jiangnan region, which also suffered from "self-stability at the lower levels and inability of the upper levels to mobilize resources."

That's right. For the next two thousand years, the invaders of China were mostly fishing, hunting, and farming peoples. The real nomadic tribes had already been wiped out by the Later Han Dynasty. The ones that could gain influence were all feudalized groups, which is why they kept going west to invade.

The reason why the military in Jiangnan was weak was not because of the lack of resources or the racial problem. Qi Jiguang's army was very capable. The fundamental reason was that the south was too prone to small-scale peasantism. When small households in the local area were "self-stable", the local small system would resist the mobilization of the large system.

In Jiangnan, a few acres of land, an ox, and a wife are theoretically enough for self-sufficiency through farming and weaving. Of course, security is an issue, so people band together to form clans in order to secure water. Once a clan is formed, there is no longer a need for further unity. They naturally resist levies from higher ruling classes because, in the eyes of the people of Jiangnan, their lives are already fulfilling and self-sufficient, and the intervention of the imperial court is seen as disrupting that fulfillment.

In the north, due to the large fluctuations in climate, if a certain area lacks artificial irrigation canals, it may experience either drought or flooding.

This required the government to mobilize laborers to repair irrigation canals and roads for transporting grain, and because of the shortage, various villages gathered together.

Even so, when the structure of the major northern clans reached a certain size and was able to withstand these fluctuations, and the clans ensured the continuation of their bloodlines, they would also implement a "self-stabilizing" adjustment mechanism similar to that of the Jiangnan region, thereby resisting further mobilization by the higher-ups (the imperial court).

Looking further north, where the fishing and hunting tribes have transitioned to agriculture, the "self-stabilization threshold" of the lower-level social production is higher when maintaining agricultural civilization, so they eventually stabilize and organize into larger groups!
However, the abundance of resources that allow a region to maintain "self-stability" does not necessarily mean that the region's military resources are also proportionally abundant.

In the water-soil climate of the south, although paddy fields can produce more food per unit area than dry land in the north, it is easier to maintain a balance and stability between small units of land and small population communities. However, in the areas of ironware, medicinal materials, and horses, the stable small population organizations in the Jiangnan region possess very little.

In other words, ten acres of land is enough for a family to live on, and it only guarantees that one male can get married, which can ensure stability for several generations. However, if they build waterwheels, dig irrigation canals, or build boats, this family will not be able to accumulate "non-food" resources.

The land and water in the north could not support such a large population, but after it eventually formed a large group with a "self-stable" population and food supply, it gained an absolute advantage over the small groups in the south in terms of the amount of ironware and warhorse resources it accumulated. These military resources could help it to plunder outside the region.

At this point, the larger and stronger social structures in the north, looking at the "self-stabilizing" smaller social structures in the south, certainly have their own ideas. Especially when natural disasters and fluctuations make the original large groups in the north unstable, their ideas become even more numerous.

Facing the north, Wu Fei was not only eyeing grain, but also war materials such as warhorses, ironware, coal, and cotton cloth. He was using every means to reduce the concentration of these resources in the hands of the Hao Kingdom's leadership. At the same time, he was breaking down the "self-stability" of the various clans below and strengthening his own resource collection.

On the map, Wu Fei looked at the governance modules within his control area and, like a sage treating the people as straw dogs, calculated a formula.

Wu Fei: "You (the men currently under the control of the clan) must lack things—you must lack women, land, salt, cloth, housing, and any regrets in your life's pursuits. I can satisfy all of these." —If you lack nothing, and the clan easily satisfies all your needs through "frugality," then I will take over the entire clan.

In the evening, Wu Fei and many students went into the cafeteria, where a pot of home-style food was divided into individual plates.

Wu Fei patted his students on the shoulder, thinking to himself, "I broadened your horizons, but you've realized you lack so much more."

…The way of man is to take from those who have little and give to those who have more…

Inside the Hao Kingdom, Pu'e was divining, her Five Elements Compass pointing towards the "desert".

This divination result means that the "peace and tranquility" of the Hao Kingdom will take a sharp turn for the worse due to the invasion of the enemy from the east.

Pu'e frowned and looked at the situation on the map.

(End of this chapter)